The Miracle of Languages -- A Biblical Perspective
The Miracle of Language and Linguistics Language and linguistics are the names that refer, respectively, to the spoken forms of communication among the members of the various human cultures, and the science of such languages. Linguistics include the study of human language and its phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics within the descriptive, historical, comparative and geographical structure and development and the relationship to other languages. Language is the human speech or expression of communication of thoughts and feelings by means of vocal sounds. A good cross-section of the meaning and descriptions of language and linguistics can be found in the Internet's Wikipedia. But in this article, I'd like to give you a different perspective on the subject which you will not read anywhere else. Back in the nineties, an article in the Toronto Star indicated that until recently, science knew little of how humans developed language; through experiments with specially devised tools at the University of Indiana, researchers were able to send sounds of the human voice to children who are totally deaf. The miracle, as described by those witnessing the scene, was not that children who were born deaf and never learned to speak were hearing and using spoken language for the first time.. But, as Dr. Mary Joe Osberger, director of research in the department of otolaryngology said, “Until now, their ability to speak was zero, no matter how intensely they were trained.” This was a quantum step indeed into the sciences of the brain and language. It went on to say that because language is so important to humans, the brain “will not let it go”. For example, it says that children who suffer major damage on the left side of the brain from accidents or disease, can acquire language using the right side of the brains. It said that children don’t need special teaching but after the age of seven, the flexibility to bounce language around in the brain diminishes. Then relearning a language as a result of brain damage becomes more difficult. It is beyond full explanation how important language is. Some evolutionists place language as the line between humans and animals. But those who believe in God’s creation realize the magnitude of this fearfully and wonderfully made human body, in all its intricacies, which is made “a little lower than the angels” and which has been crowned “with glory and honor” (Psalms 8:4-6). With language, we communicate in family and society, we learn, we teach our children, we run our communities and nations. With language we can bless or curse our fellow human being. With language, we exert power to move ahead in careers and in life. How wonderful God’s gift of tongue is. The awesome complexity of language is further explained, in part, in the article, “During human fetal development, brain cells are created and assigned general jobs. After birth, a second wave of structural changes occurs as the number of connections, called synapses, are made between brain cells. “Between birth and about age 1, the number of connections skyrockets from about 50 trillion to 1,000 trillion.” Then, “a third restructuring takes place between the ages of 4 and 10 where the brain seems “to glow like a nuclear reactor, pulsating at levels 225 percent higher than adult brains.” "Learning a foreign language, math, a musical instrument or anything else is easy during this time”, the article says. And then beyond the age of 10, when the brain’s maps have been made, learning a language involves the building of new connections and the tearing apart of old ones. Wow! This is where the real miracle comes in… In Genesis, chapter 11, we read the story of Babel where God broke up the one world language of that time into many languages: “Therefore is the name of it called, Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth”. (verse 9). That is a mighty miracle of God. These people had gone through all the biological and psychological transformations of language learning, and contained a whole nation of people including the old who had long passed the scientific reasoning “when the brain’s maps have been made and learning a language involves the building of new connections and the tearing apart of old ones.” But *instantly* God changed their language and *confounded* them all into speaking many tongues right there and then, so as to scatter them from their rebellious plan! In light of what we discover today through science and technology, miracles we read about in the Bible are becoming more and more awesome./dmh Dr. Diane M. Hoffmann is director of the Link School of Ministries, a Christian Bible Correspondence School and Internet Theological Reading Room at www.linkschool21.com . She is the author of numerous Christian seminars and theological articles, tracts, e-books and books, including "The Horizontal Chronology of the Four Gospels". (Article copyright Diane M. Hoffmann. You may reprint this article without changes and including author's name and resource box). For the dmh Prayer Chest
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